Tell us whether you accept cookies

We've put some small files called cookies on your device to make our site work. We would also like to use analytical cookies to understand how our site is used and improve user experience. Analytical cookies send information to Google Analytics.

Let us know your preference. We will use a cookie to save your choice. Before you make your choice you can read more about our cookie policy.

Get advice on common conditions:

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I make a request to my Practice?

To make a request to your Practice select the service that you require.

You will be prompted for information about your request. When you complete a request this will be sent to your practice. The system acknowledges that your request has been sent and will let you know what happens next.

The Practice handles the requests during their normal working day, i.e. if you send a request on Friday pm the Practice won’t normally see it until Monday morning.

How do I receive the responses from the Practice?

On some services, such as Ask the Practice a question and Ask the Doctor a question once the Practice has processed your request they will send you a response. This response will be sent to the email address that you have given in the form.

For security purposes the email will ask that you verify your identification. Once you have completed this the message from the surgery will be shown for you to read.

Security of your information

This service always uses fully encrypted connections, the same security as used in internet banking. If you look at the right of the address bar, you will see a small padlock icon. This indicates that you are using a secure link and that your data is encrypted.

As an additional measure your information is held encrypted until the practice need to view it. It is then sent to the practice still encrypted and only converted to readable text at the practice.

Tracking users

We track how you use our Digital Practice but we don’t collect or store your personal information (e.g. your name or address) while you’re browsing. This means that you can’t be personally identified. We use Google Analytics software to track:

The pages you visit

How long you use the site

How you got to the site and what links you clicked on.

We haven’t given Google permission to share this data with anyone else.

How is the Digital Practice updated?

We are continuously working on this site to make sure that the information is accurate and up to date. The digital practice is also continuously updated based on the results of user testing, feedback from members of the public and from your practice and other practices who are using this system.

Privacy Notice – GDPR

Your information, what you need to know

This Privacy notice explains why we collect information about you, how that information may be used and how we keep it safe and confidential.

We, at Coleridge House Medical Centre, are a Data Controller of your information. This means we are responsible for collecting, storing and handling your personal and healthcare information when you register with us as a patient. There may be times when we have to process your information for a specific purpose, hence we may also be Data Processors.

The Data Protection Officer for the practice is Barry Moult, based at Herts valleys CCG. You can contact him via the practice with any questions regarding this notice.

Why we collect information about you

Health care professionals who provide you with care are required by law to maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received within any NHS organisation.
These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.
We collect and hold data for the sole purpose of providing healthcare services to our patients.

In carrying out this role we may collect information about you which helps us respond to your queries or secure specialist services. We may keep your information in written form and/or in digital form. The records may include basic details about you, such as your name and address.
They may also contain more sensitive information about your health and also information such as outcomes of needs assessments.

Details we collect about you

The health care professionals who provide you with care maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously (eg. NHS Trust, GP Surgery, Walk-in clinic, etc.). These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.

Records which this GP Practice may hold about you may include the following:

Any contact the surgery has had with you, such as appointments, clinic visits,
emergency appointments, telephone consultations etc.

Notes and reports about your health

Details about your treatment and care

Results of investigations, such as laboratory tests, x-rays, etc.

Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you

How we keep your information confidential and safe

Everyone working for the NHS is subject to the Common Law Duty of Confidence. Information provided in confidence will only be used for the purposes advised with consent given by the patient, unless there are other circumstances covered by the law. The NHS Digital Code of Practice on Confidential Information applies to all our staff and they are required to protect your information, inform you of how your information will be used, and allow you to decide if and how your information can be shared. All our staff are expected to make sure information is kept confidential and receive annual training on how to do this.

NHS health records may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both, and we use a combination of working practices and technology to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure. Your records are backed up securely in line with NHS standard procedures. We ensure that the information we hold is kept in secure locations, is protected by appropriate security and access is restricted to authorised personnel.
We also make sure external data processors that support us are legally and contractually bound to operate and prove security arrangements are in place where data that could or does identify a person are processed.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:

Data Protection Act 1998

General Data Protection Regulation 2018

Human Rights Act

Common Law Duty of Confidentiality

NHS Codes of Confidentiality and Information Security

Health and Social Care Act 2015

We maintain our duty of confidentiality to you at all times. We will only ever use or pass on information about you if others involved in your care have a genuine need for it. We will not disclose your information to any third party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances (i.e. life or death situations), or where the law requires information to be passed on.

How we use your information

Under the powers of the Health and Social Care Act 2015, NHS Digital can request personal confidential data from GP Practices without seeking patient consent. Improvements in information technology are also making it possible for us to share data with other healthcare providers with the objective of providing you with better care.

You may choose to withdraw your consent to personal data being used in this way. When we are about to participate in a new data-sharing project we will make patients aware by displaying prominent notices in the Practice and on our website at least four weeks before the scheme is due to start. Instructions will be provided to explain what you have to do to ‘opt-out’ of each new scheme.

You can object to your personal information being shared with other health care providers but if this limits the treatment that you can receive then the doctor will explain this to you at the time.

To ensure you receive the best possible care, your records are used to facilitate the care you receive. Information held about you may be used to help protect the health of the public and to help us manage the NHS.

Legal Justification for Collecting and Using your Information

The Law says we need a legal basis to handle your personal and healthcare information.

Contract: We have a contract with NHS England to deliver healthcare services to you. This contract provides that we are under a legal obligation to ensure that we deliver medical and healthcare services to the public.

Consent: Sometimes we also rely on the fact that you give us consent to use your personal and healthcare information so that we can take care of your healthcare needs.

Please note that you have the right to withdraw consent at any time if you no longer wish to receive services from us.

Necessary Care: Providing you with the appropriate healthcare, where necessary. The Law refers to this as ‘protecting your vital interests’ where you may be in a position not to be able to consent.

Law: Sometimes the Law obliges us to provide your information to an organisation (see above).

Special Categories

The Law states that personal information about your health falls into a special category of information because it is very sensitive. Reasons that may entitle us to use and process your information may be as follows:

Public Interest: Where we may need to handle your personal information when it is considered to be in the public interest. For example, when there is an outbreak of a specific disease and we need to contact you for treatment, or we need to pass your information to relevant organisations to ensure you receive advice and/or treatment;

Consent: When you have given us consent;

Vital Interest: If you are incapable of giving consent, and we have to use your information to protect your vital interests (e.g. if you have had an accident and you need emergency treatment);

Defending a Claim: If we need your information to defend a legal claim against us by you, or by another party;

Providing you with Medical Care: Where we need your information to provide you with medical and healthcare services

Reasons For Sharing Your Information

Clinical Audit

Information may be used for clinical audit to monitor the quality of the service provided. Some of this information may be held centrally and used for statistical purposes. Where we do this we take strict measures to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified e.g. the National Diabetes Audit.

Clinical Research/Education

Occasionally your information may be requested to be used for research purposes. The surgery would always gain your consent before releasing any information for this purpose.

National Registries

National Registries (such as the Learning Disabilities Register) have statutory permission under Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006, to collect and hold service user identifiable information without the need to seek informed consent from each individual service user.

Cabinet Office

The use of data by the Cabinet Office for data matching is carried out with statutory authority under Part 6 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. It does not require the consent of the individuals concerned under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Risk Stratification

Risk Stratification is a process for identifying and managing patients who are most likely to need hospital or other healthcare services. Risk stratification tools used in the NHS help determine a person’s risk of suffering a particular condition and enable us to focus on preventing ill health and not just the treatment of sickness. Information about you is collected from a number of sources including NHS Trusts and from this GP Practice.
Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 provides a statutory legal basis to process data for risk stratification purposes. Further information is available from the following link:www.england.nhs.uk

If you do not wish information about you to be included in the risk stratification programme, please let us know. We can add a code to your records that will stop your information from being used for this purpose.

Individual Funding Request

An ‘Individual Funding Request’ is a request made on your behalf, with your consent, by a clinician, for funding of specialised healthcare which falls outside the range of services and treatments that CCG has agreed to commission for the local population. An Individual Funding Request is taken under consideration when a case can be set out by a patient’s clinician that there are exceptional clinical circumstances which make the patient’s case different from other patients with the same condition who are at the same stage of their disease, or when the request is for a treatment that is regarded as new or experimental and where there are no other similar patients who would benefit from this treatment. A detailed response, including the criteria considered in arriving at the decision, will be provided to the patient’s clinician.

Data Extraction by the CCG

The clinical commissioning group at times extracts medical information about you, but the information we pass to them via our computer systems cannot identify you to them. This information only refers to you by way of a code that only your practice can identify (it is pseudo-anonymised). This therefore protects you from anyone who may have access to this information at the Clinical Commissioning Group from ever identifying you as a result of seeing the medical information and we will never give them the information that would enable them to do this.

Extended Access Arrangements

We provide extended access services to our patients which means you can access medical services outside of our normal working hours. In order to provide you with this service, we have formal arrangements in place with the Clinical Commissioning Group and with other practices whereby certain key “hub” practices offer this service on our behalf for you as a patient to access outside of our opening hours. This means, those key “hub” practices will have to have access to your medical record to be able to offer you the service. Please note to ensure that those practices comply with the law and to protect the use of your information, we have very robust data sharing agreements and other clear arrangements in place to ensure your data is always protected and used for those purposes only.

Invoice Validation

Invoice validation is an important process. It involves using your NHS number to check the CCG that is responsible for paying for your treatment. Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 provides a statutory legal basis to process data for invoice validation purposes. We can also use your NHS number to check whether your care has been funded through specialist commissioning, which NHS England will pay for. The process makes sure that the organisations providing your care are paid correctly.

Supporting Medicines Management

CCGs support local GP practices with prescribing queries which generally don’t require identifiable information. CCG pharmacists work with your practice to provide advice on medicines and prescribing queries, and review prescribing of medicines to ensure that it is safe and cost-effective. Where specialist support is required e.g. to order a drug that comes in solid form, in gas or liquid, the CCG medicines management team will order this on behalf of the practice to support your care.

Safeguarding

To ensure that adult and children’s safeguarding matters are managed appropriately, access to identifiable information will be shared in some limited circumstances where it’s legally required for the safety of the individuals concerned.

Summary Care Record (SCR)

NHS England uses a national electronic record called the Summary Care Record (SCR) to support patient care. It contains key information from your GP record. Your SCR provides authorised healthcare staff with faster, secure access to essential information about you in an emergency or when you need unplanned care, where such information would otherwise be unavailable.

Summary Care Records are there to improve the safety and quality of your care. SCR core information comprises your allergies, adverse reactions and medications. An SCR with additional information can also include reason for medication, vaccinations, significant diagnoses / problems, significant procedures, anticipatory care information and end of life care information. Additional information can only be added to your SCR with your agreement.

You may have the right to demand that this record is not shared with anyone who is not involved in the provision of your direct healthcare. If you wish to enquire further as to your rights in respect of not sharing information on this record then please contact our Data Protection Officer.

To find out more about the wider use of confidential personal information and to register your choice to opt out if you do not want your data to be used in this way, please visit www.nhs.uk/my-data-choice.

Note if you do choose to opt out, you can still consent to your data being used for specific purposes. However, if you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. You may however change your choice at any time.

The practice keeps your health record in an electronic patient record called EMIS Health which links to your summary care record, this record is stored in a safe and secure manner in a third parties data centre which acts on the instructions of EMIS. The data centre is owned and operated by Amazon Web Services which has been approved by NHS Digital.

Local sharing via My Care Record

Your patient record is held securely and confidentially on our electronic system. If you require attention from a health professional such as an Emergency Department, Minor Injury Unit or Out Of Hours location, those treating you are better able to give appropriate care if some of the information from your GP patient record is available to them. This information can be locally shared electronically via My Care Record.

In all cases, information is only used by authorised health and social care professionals in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire based organisations, involved in your direct care. Your permission will be asked before the information is accessed, unless the health and social care user is unable to ask you and there is a clinical reason for access, which will then be logged.

Data Retention

We will approach the management of patient records in line with the Records Management NHS Code of Practice for Health and Social Care which sets the required standards of practice in the management of records for those who work within or under contract to NHS organisations in England, based on current legal requirements and professional best practice.

Who are our partner organisations?

We may also have to share your information, subject to strict agreements on how it will be used, with the following organisations:

NHS Trusts / Specialist Trusts

Independent Contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists

Private Sector Providers

Voluntary Sector Providers

Ambulance Trusts

Clinical Commissioning Groups

Social Care Services

Local Authorities

Education Services

Fire and Rescue Services

Police

Other ‘Data Processors’.

We will never share your information outside of health partner organisations without your explicit consent unless there are exceptional circumstances such as when the health or safety of others is at risk, where the law requires it or to carry out a statutory function.
Within the health partner organisations (NHS and Specialist Trusts) and in relation to the above mentioned themes – Risk Stratification, Invoice Validation, Supporting Medicines Management, Summary Care Record – we will assume you are happy to for your information to be shared unless you choose to opt-out (see below).

This means you will need to express an explicit wish not to have your information shared with the other NHS organisations; otherwise they will be automatically shared. We are required by law to report certain information to the appropriate authorities. This is only provided after formal permission has been given by a qualified health professional. There are occasions when we must pass on information, such as notification of new births, where we encounter infectious diseases which may endanger the safety of others, such as meningitis or measles (but not HIV/AIDS), and where a formal court order has been issued. Our guiding principle is that we are holding your records in strictest confidence.

Anyone you have given your consent to, to view or receive your record, or part of your record.

Please note, if you give another person or organisation consent to access your record we will need to contact you to verify your consent before we release that record. It is important that you are clear and understand how much and what aspects of, your record you give consent to be disclosed

Your right to withdraw consent for us to share your personal information (Opt-Out)

If you are happy for your data to be extracted and used for the purposes described in this fair processing notice then you do not need to do anything. If you do not want your information to be used for any purpose beyond providing your care you can choose to opt-out. If you wish to do so, please let us know so we can code your record appropriately. We will respect your decision if you do not wish your information to be used for any purpose other than your care but in some circumstances we may still be legally required to disclose your data.

To find out more about the wider use of confidential personal information and to register your choice to opt out if you do not want your data to be used in this way, please visit www.nhs.uk/my-data-choice.

Your Rights as a Patient

Access to your information

Under the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018 everybody has the right to see, or have a copy, of data we hold that can identify you, with some exceptions. You do not need to give a reason to see your data.

If you would like a copy of the information we hold about you please email our Data Protection Officer. We will provide this information free of charge however, we may in some limited and exceptional circumstances have to make an administrative charge for any extra copies if the information requested is excessive, complex or repetitive.

We have one month to reply to you and give you the information that you require. We would ask, therefore, that any requests you make are in writing and it is made clear to us what and how much information you require.

Online Access

You may ask us if you wish to have online access to your medical record. However, there will be certain protocols that we have to follow in order to give you online access, including written consent and production of documents that prove your identity.

Please note that when we give you online access, the responsibility is yours to make sure that you keep your information safe and secure if you do not wish any third party to gain access.

Correction

We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. You may ask us to correct any information you think is inaccurate. It is very important that you make sure you tell us if your contact details including your mobile phone number has changed.

Removal

You have the right to ask for your information to be removed however, if we require this information to assist us in providing you with appropriate medical services and diagnosis for your healthcare, then removal may not be possible.

Objection

We cannot share your information with anyone else for a purpose that is not directly related to your health, e.g. medical research, educational purposes, etc. We would ask you for your consent in order to do this however, you have the right to request that your personal and healthcare information is not shared by the Surgery in this way. Please note the Anonymised Information section in this Privacy Notice.

Transfer

You have the right to request that your personal and/or healthcare information is transferred, in an electronic form (or other form), to another organisation, but we will require your clear consent to be able to do this.

Third Parties Mentioned On Your Medical Record

Sometimes we record information about third parties mentioned by you to us during any consultation. We are under an obligation to make sure we also protect that third party’s rights as an individual and to ensure that references to them which may breach their rights to confidentiality, are removed before we send any information to any other party including yourself. Third parties can include: spouses, partners, and other family members.

Change of Details

It is important that you tell the person treating you if any of your details such as your name or address have changed or if any of your details are incorrect in order for this to be amended. Please inform us of any changes so our records for you are accurate and up to date.

Mobile Numbers & Email Addresses

If you provide us with your mobile phone number, we may use this to send you reminders about your appointments or other health screening information. Please let us know if you do not wish to receive reminders on your mobile.

If you provide us with your email address, we may use this to send you reminders to make an appointment for a review. Please let us know if you do not wish to receive correspondence by email.

Notification

Coleridge House Medical Centre is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) to describe the purposes for which they process personal and sensitive information.
We are a registered Data Controller and our registration can be viewed online in the public register at: www.ico.org.uk .

Complaints

If you have concerns or are unhappy about any of our services, please contact the Practice Manager.

Further Information

Further information about the way in which the NHS uses personal information and your rights in that respect can be found here: www.england.nhs.uk

The NHS Care Record Guarantee

The NHS Care Record Guarantee for England sets out the rules that govern how patient information is used in the NHS, what control the patient can have over this, the rights individuals have to request copies of their data and how data is protected under the Data Protection Act 1998.

The NHS Constitution

The NHS Constitution establishes the principles and values of the NHS in England. It sets out the rights patients, the public and staff are entitled to. These rights cover how patients access health services, the quality of care you’ll receive, the treatments and programmes available to you, confidentiality, information and your right to complain if things go wrong.

NHS Digital

NHS Digital collects health information from the records health and social care providers keep about the care and treatment they give, to promote health or support improvements in the delivery of care services in England.

Reviews of and Changes to our Fair Processing Notice

You may find a copy of this Notice in the Surgery Reception, on our website, or a copy may be provided on request. We will keep our Fair Processing Notice under regular review. This notice was last reviewed following GDPR implementation in May 2018.